Cairo Journal; In Islam's War, Students Fight on the Front Line

By CHRIS HEDGES,

Published: October 4, 1994

CAIRO—
The fall semester at Al-Salaam high school has opened with a boisterous demonstration, arrests and finally violence after a dozen girls tried to force their way into the building wearing a traditional Muslim head covering called the niqaab.

The garment, which covers the hair, neck and face, is banned in the schools by the Government, but it has become a symbol of support for Islamic militants fighting to overturn Egypt's secular Government. The start of the school year in Egypt has brought numerous such clashes with militant students.

The girls' refusal to remove the niqaab led officials at the school, which is in a Cairo slum, to call the police. But as the girls were arrested, a crowd gathered, and a bearded militant savagely beat a school guard.

"The girls refused to ride in the police car because they said it was a symbol of the regime," said a man who was there but who did not want to be identified.

The attacks by armed Islamic militants against foreign tourists and the police grab the headlines, but the fiercest battle between the underground movement and the Government is being played out in the nation's schools.

"The terrorists have been targeting schools for years," said the Minister of Education, Hussein Kamal Bahaeddin, who believes the militants have mounted a huge campaign to indoctrinate children.

"We have found schools where students are told not to salute the flag, sing the national anthem or talk or study with Christian students," said Mr. Bahaeddin, who has received numerous death threats from militants. "Teachers bring in cassettes of radical sermons and teach this instead of the curriculum."

In the last few months, the Government has removed scores of teachers suspected of promoting radical Islam in Egypt's 25,000 schools. It has also been turning away applicants to teachers' colleges who are believed to harbor sympathy for the militants.

After banning the niqaab more than a year ago, Mr. Bahaeddin issued a decree that would also have barred schoolgirls from wearing the hijab -- which covers the hair and neck, but not the face -- without parental approval.

But the decree was challenged in court by militant lawyers. The minister was forced to withdraw it, just as this school year opened, after a ruling that said his order was an infringement on personal liberties.

The court victory emboldened backers of the militant movement, who charge the Government with mounting a campaign against Islam.

The propaganda value of the head coverings has only increased with the Government's campaign against them.

The hijab and the niqaab, viewed by educated Egyptian women a few decades ago as part of the Muslim world's oppression of women, have been adopted by the current generation as a protest symbol.

"If they force me to choose between going to school and wearing the hijab, I will leave school," said Margo Abdel Ghani, 16, who was wearing a brown hijab and clutching her books as she stood outside the Al-Siniyaa school in Cairo.

At the Suzanne Mubarak girls' school, named for the wife of President Hosni Mubarak, officials say they have removed teachers who beat girls for not wearing the hijab. But the influence of the militant movement remains strong.

The boxy two-story building for 500 students is in Helwan, an industrial sector south of Cairo, and like most schools it harbors many teachers who support the militant movement. "We try and get as much information about the teachers as possible." said Nafisa al-Sayid Suleman, the principal. "But it is not always possible to know everything that goes on in the classroom."

On a recent day, all of the teachers and girls, even those as young as 6, were wearing the hijab at the Mubarak school, although traditional Islamic teaching does not require it until a girl reaches puberty.

Officials here, and in other Egyptian schools, say that teachers who back the militant movement order students not to watch Western television programs or to listen to popular music. They brand mothers who do not wear hijabs heretics and require young boys and girls to wash their hands with sand, a religious custom that dates back to the time of the Prophet Mohammed.

School officials concede that part of the reason for the success of the militants in the schools, as in other areas of Egyptian society, is that they offer services the Government is not providing. Many teachers, who earn about $30 a month, have traditionally supplemented their salaries by tutoring. Students too poor to pay for these sessions often failed their exams.

Now, free or inexpensive tutoring is offered at local mosques.

"I studied 18 subjects and the private lessons for each one cost $10 a month," said Ahmed Izzat, 17, who receives help with his studies from the militants. "It was too expensive."

"I turned to the mosque. The brothers gave me help in the same lessons, all of them, for only $5 a month. The brothers wanted me to learn."

The afternoon sessions at the mosque, however, also include talks on proper Islamic behavior, political discussions and the memorization of the Koran, the Muslim holy book.

Teachers who do not back the Islamic movement say many students come to class well versed in the militants' ideology. The militants' influence is so widespread in the schools that many people, like Dr. Abdel Qadir Kholeif, a professor at Asyut University, fear the Government may have responded too late.

"The school system is turning out fundamentalist robots," he said.

Photo: The start of the school year in Egypt has brought clashes between school officials and students who support the militant Islamic movement. Despite a Government campaign against traditional head coverings, many girls wear such scarves when exercising at Asim Ameen middle school in Cairo. (Thomas Hartwell/Saba, for The New York Times)